England's card school, life as 12th man and facing Australia
Last updated on .From the section Cricket
It was frustrating to miss out on all but the first of the six Tests England played this summer.
When the lads who are in the team are doing well, it's hard to get a spot. If you're not in the XI, you have to work hard and do all you can to be ready for the next time you get the chance to play.
Not only that, but you have to do your best to give something to the lads. That might be in the dressing room, or as 12th man.
When you're not playing, the bubble can be like Groundhog Day. It's hotel, across the pitch to the dressing rooms, then back again.
That doesn't mean I'm not appreciative of how lucky I am to do what I do. The coronavirus pandemic has been so hard for so many, but I've been fortunate to be in the England squad, staying in lovely hotels where I've been brilliantly looked after by some wonderful people.
Still, you have to try to come up with new ways to keep yourself occupied and entertained.
I spent a lot of time on the bench as 12th man with Jack Leach, James Bracey and Mark Saxby, the masseur.
One thing we came up with was the humming game, where someone has to hum a tune and the rest guess what it is.
My favourite was Leachy's attempt at 50 Cent's Candy Shop. There was this Somerset country lad getting so into his rapping. It was hilarious.
Being 12th man can also have its problems. You might have seen the clip of Rory Burns asking me for a finger protector, and me not knowing what he wanted.
It looked like he was making a 'T' symbol, so I was wondering 'does he want a cup of tea?', or 'is it something for the tea interval?'.
The daft part about it is there was absolutely no-one in the ground. If he'd just shouted, I would have known what he wanted, because you can hear everything that is said. At one point, the Pakistan reserves were sledging Jimmy Anderson from their hotel rooms.
Another clip that went viral was our attempt to head a football into a bin when it was raining at Emirates Old Trafford.
Four lads would head it to each other on the balcony, then knock it below to the rest of us, who would try to get it in the bin.
When we finished, we'd each headed the ball so much that we had to get a concussion test from the doctor.
Watching the clip of when we finally nailed it, it looks much easier than it actually was. We were also hampered by the presence of Dom Bess. Bless him, his nickname at home is 'Calf Head', because of the size of his head. The ball just hit him and bounced off.
We also call Bessy 'The Maverick' because of his approach to playing cards, something that we do a lot of in the evenings.
The game we play is called Nomination and was ruled by Joe Denly until he left the bubble. In his absence, we had a Champions League. Two groups of four, top two going through to the final. I came out on top so, Joe, if you're reading this, I'm coming for your crown.
There was a healthy amount of niggle around the table, especially between Rory and Zak Crawley.
Zak looks like Mary Berry. He's placid. You can imagine him with a pipe in one hand and a glass of something in the other. Rory is much more fiery, so it makes for some entertaining clashes.
The other thing that goes on a lot in the evenings is Call of Duty. I'm not really into it, so I have no idea what the lads mean when the talk about the 'Gulag'.
What I do know is they make a huge amount of noise when they play it. Jofra Archer is the leader. You'll hear him screaming at Stuart Broad "he's in there, he's in there!". Then Broady will yell back "get down, get down!".
If anyone was walking past, they would wonder what is going on inside the hotel, so perhaps it's a good thing we're in a bubble.
Since the Tests ended, I've had time to get home and get refreshed. It's been lovely to spend time with my wife and son, as well as playing for Durham.
Now, I'm excited to get back and be a part of the Twenty20 and one-day series against Australia.
The first thing to say is that Australia deserve huge credit, just like West Indies and Pakistan do, for making the journey to play us in these strange and uncertain times.
They are our biggest rivals, but that does not stop us from being grateful to them for coming here.
We have a good record against the Aussies in limited-overs cricket in recent times, so we don't want that to let up.
Every match you play for England is important, but there's that little bit extra when you play Australia. They will be desperate to beat us. We will be desperate to beat them.
I'm looking forward to getting started.
Mark Wood was speaking to BBC Sport's Stephan Shemilt.
| England v Australia, Twenty20 series |
|---|
| Venue: Ageas Bowl, Southampton. Dates: 4, 6, 8 September |
| Coverage: Ball-by-ball Test Match Special commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, Radio 4 LW, online, tablets, mobiles and BBC Sport app. Live text commentary and in-play clips on the BBC Sport website. Highlights on BBC Two at 23:20 BST. Second T20 live on BBC One at 13:50 BST. |
